VETO THREAT: Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says he will recommend that President Bush veto the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill if it contains House-passed provisions aimed at shoring up the U.S. defense industrial base. Rumsfeld says the so-called "Buy American" provisions, which would increase restrictions on the Pentagon's use of non-U.S. sources, would require costly changes in weapon system programs to eliminate foreign content. "For example, the provisions could force the U.S.
Second-quarter financial results for most aerospace and defense companies should reflect strong business fundamentals, despite a lack of investor interest in defense stocks, according to financial analysts. The divergence between the defense sector's performance and investor interest is "disturbing" given the high visibility, improving returns and stable cash flow of most of companies in the sector, senior aerospace and defense analyst Christopher Mecray said.
The final foam strike test carried out by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) is allowing investigators to fill in the missing pieces to the puzzle of what happened to Columbia, according to board member G. Scott Hubbard. "We are able now to explain a lot of the data that before we had only been able to speculate about," Hubbard said at a press conference in Washington July 11. "This single test ... is really allowing us to do a connect-the-dots ... and draw some lines between various pieces of evidence."
July 15 - 17 -- Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, 2003 Unmanned Systems Symposium and Exhibition, Baltimore Convention Center, Baltimore. For more information, call (703) 920-2720, email [email protected] or go to www.auvsi.org. July 15 - 17 -- 3rd Tri-Service Power Expo & Conference, "Power On the Go for Today's Armed Forces," Norfolk Waterside Marriott, Norfolk, Va. For more information go to www.ndia.org.
BIG CUTS: Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D-Ohio), a longshot candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, says he would slash defense spending to free up money for education. "We are arming ourselves to the teeth, and we are missing a chance to make sure our children have decent education," Kucinich says. He would kill the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, F/A-22 Raptor, V-22 Osprey, RAH-66 Comanche, Ground-based Midcourse Defense (GMD) system, Space Based Infrared System-High (SBIRS-High) and Space Based Radar. He also would significantly reduce spending on shipbuilding.
SUB PLANNING: General Dynamics Electric Boat will begin advanced planning for maintenance, repair and alterations on the USS Augusta (SSN-710) under a $7 million contract from the U.S. Navy, the company said July 11. The interim dry docking work is to be completed by March 19, 2004, at the company's Groton, Conn., facilities.
FUEL CELL PARTNERS: Five international partners will work with the Boeing Research and Technology Center in Madrid, Spain, on a demonstrator project to explore the use of fuel cells in aircraft, Boeing said July 11. They are Intelligent Energy of the U.K., Diamond Aircraft Industries of Austria, Sener and Aerlyper of Spain and Advanced Technology Products of the U.S.
BMC2 DELAY: The deadline to submit bids for the Battle Management Command and Control (BMC2) component of the E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) has been postponed about four weeks to Aug. 4, according to U.S. Air Force acquisition documents. The Electronic Systems Center at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., which is managing the contract, has not offered a reason for the delay. The original deadline to respond to the request for proposals was July 8.
Contracts for the first satellites to be built for Europe's Galileo satellite navigation system were signed July 11, the European Space Agency (ESA) said. The contracts are for two experimental satellites, forerunners of the system's in-orbit validation phase. One is to be launched in 2005 to secure the frequencies reserved for the Galileo system with the International Telecommunications Union, ESA said.
The Senate Appropriations Committee has added $202 million to the Coast Guard's $500 million fiscal 2004 budget request for the Deepwater modernization effort, an increase that proponents say is needed to keep the program on track.
VXX STUDY: Sikorsky is delivering a study to the U.S. Marine Corps on how the company's S-92 helicopter could be adapted to serve as a presidential transport, according to S-92 Program Manager Nick Lappos. Competing contractor Lockheed Martin delivered a similar report on the Lockheed/AgustaWestland/Bell Helicopter US101 in June. Sikorsky expects a total buy of up to 23 aircraft in the program, known as the Vertical Lift Aircraft (VXX).
PRAGUE - The Czech Republic will protect its airspace over the next five years with 12 older supersonic fighters and two training aircraft, the government agreed at a meeting on July 9.
The U.S. Defense Department says several of its missile defense and space programs will be delayed or constrained if Congress approves certain proposals that lawmakers are considering as part of the fiscal 2004 defense authorization bill.
CLASSIFIED EXPERIMENTS: Some of the classified experiments the U.S. Navy will be conducting later this year or early next year with the SSN-23 Jimmy Carter may involve unmanned underwater vehicles (UUVs), says Rear Adm. John Butler, the Navy's program executive officer for submarines. The Jimmy Carter, the last of the Seawolf-class submarines, has been redesigned for classified research and experimentation, Butler says. "The Carter has a large open interface available to us. So we'll be looking at things like large UUVs," he says.
LITTLE IMPACT: A proposed joint venture between BAE Systems and Finmeccanica is unlikely to have a major impact on the defense electronics market, according to defense electronics analyst David Rockwell of the Teal Group. The joint venture is unlikely to affect the U.S. market, Rockwell says, because it's unclear how Finmeccanica can assist BAE Systems with some of its electronics programs. The effect on the European market also is unclear because many European countries have their own suppliers, as France does with Thales, he says.
CHANGING ROLE: The Joint Staff's role in the weapons acquisition system has changed, the Pentagon says. The Joint Capabilities Integration and Development System (JCIDS) now is in effect, replacing the Requirements Generation System. That means that obtaining the Joint Staff's seal of approval for a weapons program has changed from being one of the last steps in the acquisitions process to being one of the first. The process also requires the Joint Staff to identify and describe capabilities gaps in U.S.
PROBABLE CAUSE: With its on-site investigation in Hawaii completed, the NASA five-member Mishap Investigation Board probing the loss of the Helios unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) now is turning its attention to determining the probable cause of the June 26 accident, according to NASA. The 247-foot solar-electric Helios flying wing was performing test flights at the Navy's Pacific Missile Range Facility in Kauai to demonstrate a prototype fuel cell system.
NEW DELHI - The Indian defense ministry has invited tenders for a transport aircraft for the prime minister, to replacing two aging Boeing 737-200s. This is in addition to the purchase of aircraft for transporting other government leaders. India announced last month it will buy four Embraer Legacy aircraft for that purpose (DAILY, June 27).
NEW DELHI - The first two Raytheon AN-TPQ/37 Firefinder weapon-locating radars bought by the Indian army arrived last week aboard a U.S. Air Force C-17. The radars are part of a buy of 12 India made last year (DAILY, April 19, 2002) under a $190 million fast-tracked Foreign Military Sales contract. The contract includes radar sets, AN/VRC-90E SINCGAR radios, generators, communications and Global Positioning System equipment, training equipment and support personnel, an Indian defense ministry official said.
Senior officials with the U.S. and Taiwanese navies have agreed on preliminary plans to design and develop eight diesel-electric submarines for sale to Taiwan. The plans were agreed upon last month when Taiwanese navy officials visited Washington, according to Rear Adm. John Butler, the Navy's program executive officer for submarines. Taiwan must allocate funding for the program before the U.S. Navy will issue a request for proposals (RFP) to U.S. defense contractors to build the submarines, he said.
CARRIER WORK: Northrop Grumman Corp. will continue pre-system development and design work on the U.S. Navy's future aircraft carrier program, CVN 21, under a $107.6 million contract, the company said July 10. The contract is a modification to a previous contract, bringing the work's worth to $303.5 million, Northrop Grumman said.
The Army's lead systems integrator (LSI) team of Boeing and Science Applications International Corp. (SAIC) has chosen 15 companies to help develop key technologies and systems for the Future Combat Systems program. The new partners will lead a team of about 70 companies in developing key systems during the program's $15 billion systems development and demonstration (SDD) phase. FCS, made up of 18 systems and the soldiers that control them, is a key program in the Army's transformation plans.
